Volkswagen has continued its global electric offensive during the first half of 2022, despite constraints such as ongoing supply bottlenecks and Covid lockdowns in China, delivering a total of 217,100 battery electric vehicles (BEVs), a rise of 27 per cent over the same period a year earlier.
The share of BEVs in Volkswagen’s total deliveries reached a level of 5.6%, up from 3.4% in the same period a year earlier, with Europe remaining Volkswagen’s strongest region for BEV delivery, accounting for 128,800 vehicles, or 59% of total BEVs delivered over the first half of the year.
BEV deliveries in China increased more than three-fold over the first half of the year to 63,500 units, a whopping 247% increase over the 18,300 delivered in the first half of 2021.
This was followed by the United States, which saw 17,000 BEVs delivered accounting for 8% of Volkswagen’s total BEV deliveries.
What makes Volkswagen’s first-half numbers all the more impressive is that they were recorded at the same time as ongoing supply bottlenecks affected the global automotive industry as a whole and as COVID-19 lockdowns in China and temporary halts to production in Europe throttled production.
“We successfully continued our electric ramp-up despite challenging conditions, especially in the second quarter,” said Hildegard Wortmann, Volkwwagen Group board member for sales.
“Demand continues to be strong, and we expect an improving supply situation in the second half of the year. June BEV deliveries showed a clear upward trend already to the monthly levels of Q4 2021.
“We are working intensively to reduce the high order bank and the delivery times for our customers and are committed to our goal of a BEV share of 7% to 8% for the full year.”
Volkswagen Group numbers are obviously bolstered by the fact that there are a number of brands under that umbrella, all delivering battery electric vehicles. But the core Volkswagen brand nevertheless leads the way, delivering 115,900 BEVs to customers during the first half of 2022, accounting for 53%.
Other subsidiary brands delivering BEVs included Audi with 50,000 BEVs and 23% of the Group’s total, Škoda with 22,200 BEVs and 10%, Porsche with 18,900 and 9%, and Seat/Cupra with 8,300 vehicle and 4% of the total.
The top selling BEVs from across the Volkswagen Group were the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 with 66,800 units sold between them, followed by the Volkswagen ID.3 with 26,000 units.
These were followed by the Audi e-tron (incl. Sportback) with 24,700 units, the Škoda Enyaq iV (incl. Coupé) 22,200 units, the Porsche Taycan (incl. Cross Turismo) with 18,900 units, and the Audi Q4 e-tron (incl. Sportback) with 18,200 units.
Initial figures for the first six months of 2022 compiled by Matthias Schmidt at Schmidt Automotive Research suggests that 630,000 BEV passenger cars were registered in Western Europe, of which Tesla models accounted for 83,000, or 13%, impacted by Covid lockdowns in China.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.